Blog

The Importance of Finding a Mentor in High School

Navigating the oft-troubled waters of high school is a challenging time for all of us. As our youth enters this new phase, they’re dealt with new challenges, more responsibility, and a rapidly changing environment. Even with the most engaged parental support in place, things fall through the cracks. High school students often don’t want to […]

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Why Teens Develop a Negative Body Image and How to Help Them Avoid it

At a point in every teenager’s life, they will feel insecure or even ashamed of their own body. Even grown adults struggle with adopting a healthy mindset toward their body image. While there are a lot of proactive messages supporting body positivity among teens, the facts remain that teen body angst is still a profound […]

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How Opioids Work and What They do to Teenagers

We used this space to educate and inform community leaders, parents, and teenagers about how drugs affect teenage bodies. We’ve done the same for alcohol, as well. Now we want to break out and specifically discuss the greatest drug threat in America today: Opioids. You’ve most likely heard about opioids in the news, and sadly many of you probably know someone who has […]

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The Power of Youth Empowerment Programs in Communities

  Youth empowerment programs can have an incredible impact on their communities as they support students, increase access to opportunity, and remove barriers to education and achievement. Ultimately, the goal of community programs for youth is to authentically engage and empower vulnerable children for a better future. Some programs advocate for healthy eating and physical […]

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Teen Mental Health: Self-Harm

From the outside looking in, self-harm can be a frightening and puzzling behavior – and one that’s difficult to understand. It may be surprising to learn that it’s not always driven by suicidal tendencies. In fact, teens that self-injure probably don’t intend to die but rather use it as a coping mechanism.[1] However, studies have […]

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Teens & Vaping: What You Need to Know

We’ve written before that most tobacco use begins in young adulthood, and about the risks of smoking at this young age. Studies indicate e-cigarette use presents an equally troubling trend that demands further research.

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What Alcohol Does to Teens

We’ve written before about how drugs affect teens bodies and their brains, and we continue our series here with how alcohol affects teens. A teenager’s brain is constantly being redesigned and restructured under the influence of massive hormonal changes. Add to this the influence of a drug like alcohol, and it can be a dangerous combination.

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Understanding Teen Online Behaviors to Set Safe, Smart Boundaries

With the explosion of Internet-connected and handheld devices in the last decade (the first iPhone debuted in 2007), children today have access to laptops, tablets, smartphones, gaming consoles, and more. With these devices come a new set of parenting challenges and responsibilities to keep kids safe not only from online peers and cyberbullying but also sexual predators and people seeking to do them harm online.

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